President's Late Mother Improperly, Posthumously, Baptized as a Mormon

Every year thousands and thousands of supposed relatives are being baptised and receive their "endowments" at LDS temples worldwide. There is NO WAY that all these are relatives... It STARTED out that way, but for decades already public records worldwide are used. Somebody do a simple calculation please as to how many baptisms are performed annually and how many endowments and how many couples are sealed to each other for "time and all eternity"

Kudos to those commentators on this article who have recognized that baptism by proxy is meaningful only to those who believe it is important that all of God's children deserve an option to choose whether they want that baptism, or not.

First off, the author of this article needs to get it right. No one who is baptized posthumously is made into a member of the church. It is done purely as an offering in the belief that everyone should have a choice. Their names are not added to church membership records and they are not numbered as members of the church. Let me say it again...THEY ARE NOT MADE INTO MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH! If the soul, in the great beyond decides to accept the ordinances performed on their behalf, that is their choice. If they do not, that is also their choice. -- No one should be offended by this as it is merely an offering. If you believe in it, then it is still purely a matter of choice on the deceased's behalf, and if you dont believe in it, then it wouldnt matter anyway as you would not believe in its authority or validity. However, the church does try to respect the feelings of others, and members of the church are not supposed to submit names that are not family members or names for whom they have not been given permission by said family members. Most church members respectfully try to follow these rules, but unfortunately, lds people are just as human as anyone else, and can be subject to errors in judgement and behavior at times. The results of those who break the rules, for whatever reasons, reflect badly on all those who do honor them. We dont know yet whether or not Mr. Obama's mother's name was submitted by family members or not, it is to be sincerely hoped that this will turn out to be the case. However, if not, then rest asured that those who are responsible will be dealt with. The church takes these things very seriously.

Because the LDS Church believes that it has authority from God it acts in this way. No-one who is baptised by proxy becomes a member of the Church unless they in their spiritual state want that. They are not included in Church membership numbers.
Let's se this for what it is - a Church following through on a deeply held belief - in doing so demonstrating that it cares about others.
If the Church is wrong - who is affected? If it is right - praise the Lord.
Those who hate all things LDS need to take the commonsense bung out of their brains. This is an act of love. Take it or leave it, but don't misrepresent it.

It is a loving gesture- "Baptisms by Proxy" are meant to link families forever in the eternities. Mormons believe that each person can decide to accept or reject the temple work. Hopefully Mrs. Dunham's name was submitted by a family member and will not need to be withdrawn.

I don't think it's a big deal to have baptized for Momma Obama, let her decide what she wants to do with it now.

I converted to the Mormon faith because the faith answers my questions with Biblical reference and the First Vision makes total sense to me. I do not believe in the Trinity, the Bible is clear that God is our Heavenly Father and that his Son is Jesus Christ and that there is a Holy Ghost....God and Jesus are NOT the same person. NO where in the Bible does it mention trinity...yet over 135+ times it is clear about the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Who was Jesus praying to when he was here on earth then....if he was God??? See what I am saying....

Don't discount the Mormon faith or just buy into other churches teaching that we are a cult...there is a reason they don't want you to listen to us....they want your money to live on...our Bishops work for their living and all of local positions are by "callings" and not paid for....we do them as a service.

Just curious:

"it is counter to Church policy for a Church member to submit names for baptism for persons to whom they are not related".

Why are three submitter's names given at the LDS Family search site? Mary GILBERT, Stephen David CABANISS and George LARSON II. Did any of these three actually submit the name of Pres. Obama's mother? If not, do these three know that their names are on the LDS site as the submitters?

The ultimate example of someone performing a "ritual" or "act" for someone else, living or dead, is when Jesus Christ died for others so they could have salvation.

If you believe that Jesus can die for you, then you are on the exact same path logically to allowing proxy baptisms or whatever for others who can then decide later if they accept them or not.

Somehow,I think Pres.Obama will recover from this. He has his hands full with National Security & Health Care, Rush Limbaugh & Nancy Pelosi(fair&balanced).
As a Christian myself, I deplore
backbitting among those who would call themselves Christian. We all come short of the glory of God and need Jesus' grace.
When I am dead and gone, I hope someone will remember me in their prayers and sacraments. I need all the help I can get!
AmazingGrace,HowSweet!

Yes, Mormons are a bunch of busy-bodies (the whole Prop 8 fiasco showed that), but other religions shouldn't be so quick to cast the first stone. If you're a good Lutheran, Baptist, or Catholic and are sickened by this violation of personal rights by the some deludded (but well-meaning) Mormon, now you know how I feel everytime so GOP person intones his personal, cherry-picked passage from the Bible on the floor of Congress to justify his vote for marginalizing and discriminating against any group. This "My allegorical Holy Book can beat up your allegorical Holy Book" has got to stop. Separation of Church and State was put in place over two centuries ago for a very good reason.

If I wanted to know about Catholics I should probably ask a Baptist, right? How about I ask a disgruntled or excommunicated former Catholic? I am sure I could get the straight skinny from them. No? Well you certainly are not saying I should ask a real honest-to-goodness Catholic what they believe are you? I know - I will ask former White House legend Lawrence O'Donnell. He knows everything about other
religions.

Necro-ordinances seems like an odd practice. I guess it is like someone making a voodoo doll of someone. It won't make any difference, but it seems rude and imposing in a way. I don't think it should be illegal for Mormons to dunk the dead, but I would hope the Mormons would keep it to themselves or not do it at all. More important is their fighting to deny equal protection to gays. That has more real, negative impact.

Mormons want us to believe they follow Christ. As I recall, Jesus chose to be baptized while he was alive here on earth. I would hope no one would dishonour me by baptizing me after I die, but really it would be a meaningless ritual which would not affect me, nor my soul, in any way.

Mrs. Plasticman: You wrote:

>“32 wives? you have been reading anti-mormon literature. They count in their 32 women who were sealed to him at their own request AFTER he was dead. LOL”<

No, they were not. These 32 women were married to him while he was still alive.

We know of at least eight additional women who were married, by proxy, to Smith after his death, and there may be more.

But the 32 wives were definitely married to Joseph while he lived.

For all the ranting and raving about so-called “anti-Mormon literature,” you ought to at least pick up a book to make sure you know what you’re talking about before you LOL, because very often the so-called “anti-Mormon” literature contains the truth. Why do you think the church doesn’t want you to read it?

By the way, the source of these numbers is from scholar Todd Compton’s “In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith. Compton is a believing and active member of the LDS church. He, nor his book, is hardly “anti-Mormon.”

Jaynee Doe

Mrs. Plasticman, you wrote: “Odie: If the person is not your ancestor and there is a living relative, you are required to get permission from the nearest living relative. If you are not doing this, then you are one of those people who are making the rest of us look bad.”

Odie is being honest, and s/he knows this happens often.

The Church’s century-old policy used to be to submit names for proxy baptism for any deceased person discovered in any genealogical research, not just those who were relatives. That stayed the policy until the controversy over proxy baptizing Jewish members of the Holocaust.

Unfortunately, many self-righteous members “in-the-know” believe the new policy of only submitting names of relatives is all for show, and that they don’t really have to follow it, because they are God’s true people, and they’re going to continue to do God’s work, whether someone gets offended or not.

I have no doubt most Mormons who submit names for proxy baptisms today do so following the new guidelines that person must be a relative.

I also have no doubt whatsoever a significant number are not following the guidelines, because I’ve seen it. They don't think they have to, and baptising Mrs. Obama by proxy is a perfect example of this.

Jaynee Doe

Let this be the 30th post or so to say Mormons don't believe anyone automatically joins their church through those posthumous baptisms. They are done to provide that opportunity to people who have died, should they choose to avail themselves of it. This was a pretty substantial headline error someone ought to correct immediately.

If Mormons are so bad, then our country is on its way to ####ville.

It boggles the mind how stupid, insipid, ignorant, and libelous Americans have become.

The media knows better, but they make money being storytellers rather than journalists.

If you look up "Christian" in the dictionary you will find that (by definition) Mormon's are also Christian's. Mormon's believe in Jesus Christ and His teachings and that he is the God of this world. :)

chatterbug:

"Christians don't have a particular building's name, but believers make up the churches body (congrigation. Religion is man made, Christ's church (believers) is not"

You are making a big deal over semantical distinctions. If believers in Christ meet in a congregation, they are a religion. Spiritual? Same thing. Furthermore, if they organize themselves in any way to meet together, they are a church.

I don't really care if you call yourself nondenominational or a nonchurch. That is what a group of believers are and that is what they do. It is that simple. There is nothing wrong with it.

Every religion has little bits of truth.
Mormon's believe in Christ as well. Mormon's believe in his death for our sins and his ressurection. Mormon's believe all which the Bible teaches. Thus Mormon's MUST have truth to them as well (for those of you who are Christian). After studying MANY religions it's only conclusion is that every religion, every belief, has some truth.